File:Antonio Pollaiuolo (1907) (14765032805).jpg

Identifier: antoniopollaiuol00crut (find matches)
Title: Antonio Pollaiuolo
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Cruttwell, Maud
Subjects: Pollaiolo, Antonio, 1426?-1498 Pollaiolo, Piero, ca. 1443-1496
Publisher: London : Duckworth and Co. New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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c qualities of his art to perfection, take the fore-most place among Antonio^s paintings. In spite of theobvious preoccupation with muscular movement andvehement action, they have much of the romanticbeauty of the Apollo and Daphne in the landscape anddetail. In colour and miniature-like delicacy of execu-tion they resemble it closely. In the sinewy, lean figures of Hercules is concentratedthe highest pitch of physical force in violent action.Each muscle is strained to its limit of tension, and aswe look, we feel our pulse quicken and our musclestighten in unconscious imitation. The strains andefforts of the limbs are focussed in the distorted features,with the wrinkled brows, clenched teeth, and lips drawndown at the corners like a savage beast. No artist hasever concentrated in a human face so much passion andbrute-force as in the tiny head of Hercules stranglingAntaeus. In both paintings the nude is faultless. Every detailof the underlying structure is indicated with consummate VII
Text Appearing After Image:
Ali7iaf i HERCULES SLAYING ANT^^US. BY ANTONIO POLLAIUOLOUFFIZI, FLORENCE Face p. JO EARLY PAINTED WORK 71 science, the nervous force of the arms^ the grip andpressure of the feet on the ground, the tension andelasticity of the strained muscles. In the combat withthe Hydra the vehemence and rapidity of the movementtakes ones breath away. Violence and passion havenever been so vividly presented as in the hero^s fiercerush on his prey, the swing of the club, and the clutchof the hand upon the neck. In the combat with Antaeus the action is collected inone supreme muscular effort, whose external manifesta-tions are comparatively tranquil. Only by the swellingof the muscles, the grip of the feet on the ground, thegrimace of the features, is the immense effort expressed.The result of the combat in both scenes is inevitable.The onslaught on the Hydra is as irresistible as thesqueeze of the iron arms that forces the breath visiblyfrom the body of Antaeus. There are other preeminent qualities,

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